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Journal of Ethnobiology and
Ethnomedicine
Open Access
Research
Some Lithuanian ethnobotanical taxa: a linguistic view on Thorn
Apple and related plants
Daiva ekauskait
1
and Bernd Gliwa*
2
Address:
1
Kaunas College of Forestry and Environmental Engineering, Girionys, Lithuania and
2
Sargeliai, Lithuania
Email: Daiva ekauskait - daivases@yahoo.de; Bernd Gliwa* - berndgliwa@yahoo.de
* Corresponding author Equal contributors
Abstract
Background: The perception and use of plants correspond with common plant names. The study
of plant names may give insight into historical and recent use of plants.
Methods: Plant names in dictionaries and folklore have been evaluated. A etymological analysis of
the names is provided. Onomasiological and semasiological aspects have been considered.
Therefore, species named with names related to each other have been selected.
Results: Plant names containing the stem dag- or deg- may belong to either of two categories:
incenses or thorny plants. Plants named in durn- have been in use as psychopharmaca. The name
rymo points not to Rome but to the use of plants as anodyne or psychopharmaca.
Background
The study of plant names is a quite old branche in ethno-
botany. It is connected with comparative historical lin-
guistics and Indo-European studies [1] or philological
studies of singular languages, e.g. the dictionary of Ger-
man plant names [2]. Names correspond with the percep-
tion and categorisation of plants. This is true for the
binary scientific names [3] as well as for common plant
names.
Linguistic studies have shown that plant names of com-
mon origin may refer to different plant species. E.g. Latin
fagus 'Fagus sp.' vs. Old Greek phgs 'Quercus sp.'. Various
explanations have been given, the most frequent is prob-
ably the missing of a certain plant in the area where speak-
ers of a language came to settle. Another view points to an
open question: we do not know what the reconstructed
Indo-European *bhago- really meant. It could name Fagus
sp. as well as any tree with leaves or hard timber [4,5].
Methods
Lithuanian plant names have been selected from written
sources and common use. A philological analysis of the
names has been provided, their botanical meaning has
been discussed. Both, semasiological and onomasiologi-
cal aspects have been considered. Therefore, species with
identical or similar names have been selected for the
present study. The etymological analysis is related with
plant names from neighbouring Slavic and Germanic lan-
guages. It is supposed that names correspond with the use
of these plants in traditional medicine, rites and handi-
crafts. Ethnographic data about plants have been an
important source for the study. Due to requirements of
linguistic papers we italicise not only botanical taxa but
also linguistic forms. We hope that this will not result in
confusion. Diacritics have been omitted.
Published: 02 March 2006
Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine2006, 2:13 doi:10.1186/1746-4269-2-13
Received: 17 January 2006
Accepted: 02 March 2006
This article is available from: http://www.ethnobiomed.com/content/2/1/13
2006ekauskait and Gliwa; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0),
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 2006, 2:13 http://www.ethnobiomed.com/content/2/1/13
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Results and discussion
Durna
Durnarop ist the most popular Lithuanian name for Dat-
ura stramonium. It is also used for recently introduced
ornamental plants of the genus Brugmannsia. Other names
for D. stramonium are durnadagilis, durnadagis, durnarjus,
durnaol, durniukas etc. [6,7]. Linguists compare these
terms usually with Russian durman 'D. stramonium' and
durnyj 'stupid' and claim that the Lithuanian plantnames
and Lithuanian durnas 'stupid' have been borrowed from
Slavic languages [8]. The origin of D. stramonium remains
unclear until now. The species is indigenous either to Cen-
tral America or to Asia or cosmopolitan. No sure evidence
(palynolonogy, macro fossils) for neither views has been
provided so far. It seems rather impossible to falsify one
of these opinions. Therefore, linguistic discussion has no
firm basis when it regards only this species. Additionally,
there are other plants named in a similar way: durnaol,
durnius 'Hyoscyamus niger L.', durnaol 'Atropa bella-donna
L.', durnarepka 'Scopolia carniolica Jacq.' and durnaol
'Lolium temulentum L.' [6,9]. All species are psychoactive.
No doubt, the names refer explicitly to this effort. Hyoscya-
mus niger and Lolium temulentum are indigenous plants or
at least archeophyts.
The use of psychoactive plants is a human universality
and-generally speaking-not a matter of loaning. If plant
names in durn- were loans then there should be synony-
mous names with Lithuanian paikas, kvailas, ioplas, trenk-
tas etc. 'stupid, crazy'. In fact, only a single ioplys 'idiot'
appears for D. stramonium. Not only therefore, the conclu-
sion is that durnas 'stupid' is not a loan but Baltic heritage,
however, cognate with the Slavic words for narcotic
plants, e.g. Russian durman, Belorussian durzilje 'D. stra-
monium', Russian durninik 'Xanthium L.', Ukrainian dur
'Hyoscyamus niger' [7].
A considerable number of Lithuanian phrases concern
henbane, thorn apple etc. and their well known effort:
"The drunkard gambols like having consumed henbane",
"he talks nonsens as if he would have eaten thorn apple",
"he turns around as if he would have consumed thorn
apple" etc. [10]. The effort is temporary and primarily not
a matter of character or intellect. Therefore, it is suggested
that the original meaning of durnas etc. was not 'stupid'
but 'drunken, high'. The use of psychoactive plants
belongs to the responsibility of religion in quite a lot of
cultures [11]. One can suppose that pre-Christian local
religions used them as well. A hint is the name dievaolynis
'God's herb' for D. stramonium [10], where dievas 'God' is
probably the Pagan god of heaven, predecessor of the
Christian God, for the Catholic rite do not favour the use
of narcotic plants.
Rymo
Several Lithuanian plant names contain the word Rymo:
Rymo ridikas, Rymo ropiks 'Atropa bella-donna L.', Rymo rop
'Datura stramonium L.' and 'Scopolia carniolica Jacq.', Rymo
ramun 'Matricaria recutita L.' [6,10]. The spelling shows
that Rymo has been understood as proper name: Rymo 'of
Rome'-Old Lithuanian Rymas, Mod. Lith. Roma 'Rome'.
Regarding origin, range and use of these plants one misses
a clear motivation for this label [12]. Generally, ridikas
refers to any tap-root, rop names turnip, tubers, knobs-
roots as well as fruits.
The origin of D. stramonium is not clear as mentioned
above, but Rome is no serious option. For Scopolia carniol-
ica the species designation carniolica refers to its origin
respectively area of first description in Carniola. Russian
belladonna occurs wild in the Carpathians, Caucasus,
Alps [11]. Others note its spreading from the Apennine
peninsula to East Europe [13] and a cultivation in Lithua-
nia, Latvia and East Prussia and its use as narcotica, aph-
rodisiaca and for healing nervous fits [14]. However, S.
carniolica has not even been mentioned by Dagys [6].
Atropa bella-donna grows wild in most parts of Europe,
South East Asia and North Africa [13]. Matricaria recutita
is an indigenous plant to Lithuania, now rather rare [15].
The species of the family Solanaceae under discussion have
in common that they are introduced to Lithuania. That
would it make possible to receive a geographic attribute
as, to give an example, graikikas rieutas 'Greek nut' Juglans
regia L. did. The latter agrees with the way the plant was
cultivated and spread. The Persian Walnut is very often
attributed with geographical terms [2]. On the contrary,
the plants attributed in Rymo have no names in neigh-
bouring languages referring to their origin, except Russian
belladonna with a different localization, however. A
recent study has shown that common Lithuanian plant
names-not book names-refer very seldom to the geo-
graphic origin of the plant [16].
We suggest that rymo (genitive of rymas) has nothing in
common with Rome. It is by accident phonetically equal
to the Old Lithuanian name of Rome: Rymas. Therefore
the option to reinterpret the meaning of the word-a folk
etymology-has been given. But what is the origin of rymo?
Have a look on data of Lithuanian lexicology and folklore.
A once popular Lithuanian game is named "rop rauti" 'to
root out the turnip' [17]. One actor explains that his wife
has a violent urge for Rymo ridikas, therefore it should be
rooted out right now [18]. Another version requires trimo
lapo 'stanching leaf', because the actor has been bitten by
a dog.
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The urge for Rymo ridikas appears in phrases such as
Usigeid kaip bobut Rymo ridiko 'She demands rymo tur-
nip like an old woman' [17]. Noteworthy, in all versions
of the phrases female persons require it. This circumstance
makes it less convincing to argue with narcotica in this
special case. The game is typical for wedding ceremonies,
the man is looking for medicine for a female person. It
could be supposed that the game was the modelling of
birth and asking for the midwife. Therefore-asking the
midwife-special phrases have been used, straightforward
terms like child giving or birth were to avoided, usual
encodings were e.g. peius sugriuvo 'the stove tumbles
down', gandras atne broliuk 'the stork delivered a
brother' [19].
Scopolia carniolica and Hyoscyamus niger are known for tra-
ditional use aborning to soothe the pain in labour [9,20].
D. stramonium and A. bella-donna are also anodynes. Data
on real or possible use of the latter both species while
child giving we did not observe. All plants in rymo are
officinal ones. Lithuanian raminti 'to calm, quieten;
soothe; console; ease pain' is a favourite word to express
soothing. Related words are e.g. Lithuanian ryma 'tran-
quility, calm', rymoti 'to think, meditate', ramus 'quiet'
[8,10]. There is no hindrance to integrate Rymo and all of
the plant names into this word family.
Rymo ramun 'Matricaria recutita' is said to ease pain in the
stomach: ramuliai vid ramina [10]. Therefore, we suppose
that not only rymo but also ramun belongs to the family
of rimti 'to became quiet, calm' as well. Linguists claim
that Lithuanian ramun etc. and others like Russian
romaka 'Matricaria spp. etc.' goes back to Latin anthemis
romana, chamaemelum romanum [8,21].
However, the origin of this Latin name shows that it has
nothing in common with Rome. Marzell [2] notes that
romanum only means 'not native' here; but this is not the
point. He remarks further that the claim mentioned by
Mattioli in 1600 "the species grows around Timur near
Rome" triggered off the use of romanum. In fact, it did not
grow there at this time, it was unknown to authors of
antiquity [2]. So, why did Mattioli claim this? The answer
lies in this case in common German names, e.g. Romei,
Remey 'Matricaria spp., Chamaemelum spp.' Relating the
name which sounds like Rome to Rome is a usual linguis-
tic process named folk etymology, the same as we report
for Lithuanian Rymo.
The situation with the Russian material is very similar.
Merkulova [21] notes Russian cvetu romanova 'Roman
flower' and romanova trava 'Roman herb' found in written
sources from 1534. She claims that Middle Age Latin
called the plants anthemis romanum, chamaemelum roman,
unfortunately without giving evidence for this claim. This
would classify the names as pure book names. The Rus-
sian and Polish spelling of Rome is with i or y. Versions
with o are quite new-from the 20
th
century. So we have the
strange situation that Russian rimskaja romaka
'Chamaemelum nobile' would point to Rome in both parts.
The older one (romaka) would show the modern spelling
of Rome. The new one, which is indeed a translation from
a binary (Latin) plant name, shows the traditional spell-
ing.
Therefore we conclude that Russian romaka as well as
Lithuanian rymo, German Romei refers to the healing
properties of Matricaria recutita. All these plant names
should be cognate to each other. Similar plant names in
rymo for Atropa bella-donna, Scopolia carniolica and Datura
stramonium, on the one hand, and Matricaria recutita, on
the other hand, result from the use of rimti for both, hae-
mostatic effort on wounds (cf. German die Blutung einer
Wunde stillen 'to staunch a wound' where still means
'calm, quiet') and the effort on the psyche.
Dagys
Lithuanian plant names containing the stem dag- or deg-
may belong to one of three different concepts. However,
only one of them is taken into consideration usually i.e.
the concept of thornes, spines and prickles: Lithuanian
dagys and dagilis 'Carduus spp., Cirsium spp., Onopordum
acanthium L., Silybum marianum Gaerth.', dagiius 'Xan-
thium spinosum L.', dyguldagis 'Datura stramonium L.'
[6,8,10]. One more example, where dag- refers to the con-
cept of thorns or the like are dagutis, diegiaol, dygulis etc.
'Geum urbanum L.'. The plant has no thorns but the fruit is
prickly like burdock's one. Lithuanian velniadagis 'diablo's
prick' names Arctium sp.
The second concept refers to Lith. degti 'to burn' [22].
Deguiukas 'Lychnis viscaria (L.) K. Jess' is related as well.
This name, however, should be seen in relation to the use
of stalks made from Lychnis spp. for candle wicks [2]. Lych-
nis had been derived from the Greek name for light as well
[3].
A third concept has been introduced recently [7,23]. It is
similar to the preceding one. It refers to a use as incense
especially in healing.
Additionally, Lithuanian dagilis appears in refrains of of
Lithuanian folk songs "Lio lelijla, lio dagilio; Lelijla, dag-
ilio", "Dobile, dogile, Dobile, totata" [23]. Here, the term is
connected with other plant names: lelija 'lily' and dobilas
'clover'. It is very difficult to find out which species is
meant by dagilis. As we can exclude any reference to
thorns, it seems possible to suggest a use as incense, e.g.
for healing purposes.
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In order to heal the folk illness timorousness (Lithuanian
igstis) the patient is smoked with seeds of Datura stramo-
nium L., flowers of Paeonia spp. and dagis [9], with dry
grinded dagiliai [24]. The identity of the latter-dagis and
dagiliai-remains unclear.
Different interpretations seem applicably for durnadagis,
dyguldagis 'Datura stramonium'. It has been named thorn
apple with respect to its thorny fruit. The use as incense
has been attested: throwing D. stramonium on the hot
sauna oven has been an erotically charged joke some-
where in rural Lithuania [11,25]. Common German plant
names Rauchffelkraut, Asthmakraut 'D. stramonium' [2]
refers also to healing properties.
Common names of Potentilla erecta (L.) Raeusch. are
beyond question. Degimai 'burning', degimo ol 'burning
herb', degsnys 'burnt place' refer to words for burning;
dagiai and dagiukas are suspected to do so as well. The
plant was used as incense as can be seen from its name
priemetol 'herb for nervous fits'. The illness priemtis is
widely healed smoking herbs.
Conclusion
Plants may-according to use and habit-belong to different
ethnotaxa. This has been shown for three Lithuanian cat-
egories, each of them containing Datura stramonium. The
affinity of a certain plant to a category is sensitive to the
language used in the name-giving process-only a language
where one word is appropriate for stanching wounds, eas-
ing pain and calming the psyche may group Atropa bella-
donna, Scopolia carniolica, Datura stramonium and Matri-
caria recutita together.
Competing interests
The author(s) declare that they have no competing inter-
ests.
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